


The Dyed Web

by nottheatretrash



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: College AU, Creativity, Human AU, M/M, Sanders Sides - Freeform, Spiderman AU, Spiders, Spiderwebs, Studying, University, cartoons, sanders sides au, spider powers, spiderman - Freeform, spiderverse, superhero au, web slinging
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-28 12:26:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20063998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nottheatretrash/pseuds/nottheatretrash
Summary: Thomas Sanders is tired but managing as a grad student, happily ordinary. There's only one problem. Thomas isn't usually bothered by spider bites, but this bite seems to have some, er, side effects.Suddenly, Thomas has a number of powers that mimic Spiderman's, New York's local superhero. Thomas was intending to lie low and practice with his powers for a few years until he graduated, but now he's in a sticky situation and is caught in a web of danger that he might not be able to escape.Hiding his powers from his roommates, growing into his spidery role, dealing with feelings for a certain someone, and passing all his classes is a tall order, but the new spider-man can do it all, or his name isn't Thomathy Sanders.





	1. The Bite

**Author's Note:**

> I was watching Into the Spiderverse again, and this is the result. I'm not sorry.
> 
> (I'm actually really excited to write this, this is like one of three different Spiderman!Thomas AUs I want to write, but here we go.)
> 
> (Also, the other sides are his roommates, or neighbors in his dorm.)
> 
> (I will be writing Deceit and Remus. I love Deceit as a character, and I wanna practice with Remus, but I'll put in the notes beforehand how they act so as not to squick anyone.)
> 
> (In this AU spiderman can shoot webs from his hands as well as stick, unlike canon, where he needs a web-slinger)
> 
> (Enjoy!!!)

Thomas sighed and stared at the hazy letters of the page in front of him. He set his head down on the desk for a moment, then thought better of it and walked to the fridge. The fridge remained entirely unchanged from 10 minutes ago, when Thomas last checked.

Thomas checked his watch. Everyone was in class, or doing something with someone. It was frustrating. Logan was expected to return first, but he'd been adamant this morning that the room was to remain quiet for studying. After wandering around the small dorm for a few more minutes, Thomas sat down at the tv and pulled up a show. It happened to be an episode of Phineas and Ferb he hadn't seen for a while, so he quickly became immersed in the storyline. During the middle of Doofenshmirtz's exposition, the door to the room shot open, startling Thomas.

Thomas was not, of course, startled by the door opening, as that is the function of a door, but at the speed the door opened at, and the noise it made upon hitting the wall. He wasn't surprised by the figure that ran in the door yelling and holding a sword, as, he'd gotten used to Roman's flamboyant personality in the months they'd lived as neighbors.

"Hello, hello, hello!" Roman grinned. "Come, my dashing prince! We're off to explore!"

He grabbed Thomas's hand and pulled him up off the couch and started dragging him to the door. Thomas grinned, then twisted around and turned the TV off with the remote he was still holding. He then tossed the remote toward the couch, wincing when it hit Logan's books, but by then he was out of the room and the door was closing. Thomas jogged to keep up with his regal friend's stride.

"Wait, aren't you supposed to be on a date?"

Roman grimaced. "He doesn't like Disney."

"No!"

"No, he ghosted me. Although, that is objectively better, so, eh." Roman's fast pace was proof that he actually was quite upset, but Thomas didn't bring it up.

"So, um, where exactly are you going?"

"Pliwith Hall. I found a secret tunnel."

Thomas missed a step in his surprise. "For real?"

Roman nodded excitedly. "Follow my lead."

Roman and Thomas walked across the campus toward the lecture hall. It seemed like the entire school had disappeared, shut themselves in dorm rooms or found somewhere to sit and wait out the weather. The college was cold and drizzly, and no one was making use of the parks in the area.

Soon enough, the pair reached Pliwith and walked down the halls. Pliwith was the oldest building on campus, as most of them had been brought to the modern area or remodeled completely. Pliwith was small and mostly disregarded, and few classes were held in the dusty building. Roman led the way to the back of a small room.

"I was sitting back here cuz I got here late, and you know how the desks are hollow?"

Thomas shook his head. "Never had a class here."

"Oh, well, the desks are hollow and you can get under them, and it's like a little tunnel. It's actually pretty roomy, and you can't hear anything. The side of the desk that faces the professor is completely blocked off. Anyway, I dropped my pen under the desk and when I went to get it, I found, c'mon, look." Roman kneeled and shoved himself under the desk, forcing Thomas to follow. Thomas shrugged and did so. Roman was crawling forward in the tunnel in front of him. "Look. Here's where the wall should be. Notice that it's not."

"How'd you figure that out?"

"I was sitting on the end, and tried to lean against the wall when I retrieved my pen, and the wall broke. No one noticed, so I figured I could come back later and explore!" Roman explained delightedly.

"Did you bring a flashlight?"

"Um, no. But, I can use my phone!" Roman pulled out his phone and illuminated the corridor. Rather than extending out from the line of desks, the tunnel turned and ran the length of the room. The slope was steep but doable. There were dust and spiderwebs everywhere, but Roman forged ahead. Or rather, forged to the right, up the path of the tunnel. It was only a few feet to the back of the room, and the tunnel ended with it. Roman stood and looked up.

"Wait, how are you standing?" Thomas asked. He watched as Roman started to ascend a rusty iron ladder out of sight. Thomas crawled forward and watched Roman climb up, and then down.

"Nothing up there, it just ends."

"Like the line of desks ends?" Thomas stood and squeezed past Roman and climbed the ladder.

It was taller than he'd first thought, but since he hasn't thought to take out his own phone flashlight, he ended up hitting his head on the ceiling, and lifting up a panel above him. He reached up and punched it with his fist. The panel broke, littering wood and more spiderwebs on his head. "Ugh!" He kept climbing and stepped on a plank next to the ladder. Then he took his phone out of his pocket and looked at the area around him. It was a huge space that seemed to encompass the roof of the entire building.

"Yo, Roman, come on!" Thomas walked across the beam and lifted up one of the panels and looked down into the room below. Roman stuck his head up and looked around.

"Dude, this is cool! We should clean it up and do something with it!"

"Yeah, just don't fall off the beam." Thomas joked. He walked around a bit more, trying to plan out in his head. They could put some boards or something down and set up some lanterns or something. Thomas was distracted from his thoughts by a strange sensation on his arm. He looked down, and stared right at the biggest spider he'd ever seen in person. Before he could react, the spider bit down on his arm. Thomas screamed and swatted at it.

Before he could help himself, Thomas fell backward towards the panels. He panicked and threw out his arms. A strand of spider's silk shot out from his fingertips and stuck onto the ceiling above, stopping his fall. Thomas swung in the air back and forth gently.

Roman darted toward him. "Woah! Dude, are you ok?"

"Um, I think? Could you maybe help?" Roman reached out and grabbed his shirt and pulled Thomas back onto his feet.

"C'mon, let's go before we're missed," Roman said.

Thomas nodded. "Sure." Roman walked away, but Thomas stared at the web hanging from the ceiling in confusion for a moment before following. What had _happened_?


	2. The New Spiderman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh this was fun! Warnings for this chapter: Mentions of Deceit & Remus, but they don't appear in the scene or speak, the word d*ck, and a bit of panic/anxiety, but not a panic attack.

Thomas and Roman hurried back to their dorm rooms. Roman had stopped trying to make conversation, for which Thomas was glad. What had happened in the roof of the lecture hall, whatever the cause, was bothering him. Thomas had one idea but was trying to dismiss it because of how ludicrous it seemed. Before he could speculate more on the idea, he and Roman were back at their rooms. They'd taken more time than they'd thought to explore. When they got back to the building, Roman and Thomas wandered in and out of rooms, trying to see who was where.

Their hallway on the 5th floor was basically one big happy family. The college had a program where it matched roommates with similar personalities, interests, and schedules. Thomas shared a room with Logan, the most logical of the group, a computer science major. Patton, the dad of the group shared with Emile Picani, who was learning to be a therapist. Remy and Virgil shared a room and further ruined each's (already deplorable) sleep schedules, much to Logan's chagrin. Roman was supposed to share with his twin brother Remus, but earlier in the year he'd swapped with the last man on the floor since Roman was tired of dealing with him.

The last man, Dee, as he was known, hadn't had a roommate, so Remus had a room all to himself, which suited him greatly. Dee was majoring in phycology, and no one actually knew his real name. He'd introduced himself as D and hinted that that was the first letter of his name. Remus had taken to calling him Dick, and Roman and Patton made a game of addressing him by different names starting with D to see if he'd tell them which it was. Dee responded to all of them, foiling their efforts. The rest on the floor just called him Dee and left it at that.

Each of the five rooms had a different purpose too. Logan's and Thomas' was the quiet room, for studying or whenever someone needed a little less stimulation. Patton's & Picani's was the cartoon room, while Roman and Deceit were the creative room. Remy and Virgil hosted the edgy room and decorated in black, purple, and Halloween year-round. Roman left Thomas to hang in the Cartoon Room, where Patton and Virgil were cuddling and watching Steven Universe. Thomas wandered around the hall a few minutes, not wanting to disturb Logan studying in his room but not having any clue what to do.

Thomas walked to the end of the hallway and climbed the stairs a few floors to reach the roof. He leaned against the railing and looked over the campus. Tall skinny buildings hosted all the dorms, and grand buildings comprised the areas of campus not covered in park. The one exception was Pliwith Hall, which stood short and squat and mostly overlooked. Thomas stared at it. 

He tried to review the facts. The spider bit him, making him fall. As he was falling, something had happened, and spiderwebs shot from his hand, stopping him from crashing to the floor on the hall below. Thomas could only come up with one explanation. Somehow, he'd become Spiderman. 

Spiderman was the city's hero, swinging around and stopping crime, helping old ladies down from trees and cats cross the street. Thomas had seen him swing across the college a few times but had never been able to talk to him. Thomas racked his memory. What other powers did Spiderman have?

Shooting webs, sticking to walls, um, what else. Thomas pulled out his phone and looked it up, searching for results. Most of the news had nothing to say, but one article helped. It theorized that Spiderman's appeared to have super strength, speed, and agility, as a result of his body acting the way a spider's would. Thomas thought. Strength and speed would probably be easy to test since he'd never been the fittest anyway. Trying to stick to a wall seemed a bit dangerous, as did trying to shoot webs. 

Then Thomas shook his head. There was no way, this was all silly. It was just a normal spider, and Thomas was misremembering what happened. Thomas glanced at the time then glanced across the campus once more. Wait, it was Wednesday! He had class now. Thomas swore and ran toward the stairwell. He shoved open the door with his shoulder and dashed down the stairs. Thomas was almost at his floor when his foot slipped and missed a step. He reached out blindly and grabbed the railing to the left of him, steadying himself. 

Thomas took a deep breath and sorted himself out, then tried to let go of the railing. The railing stayed firmly stuck to his hand. "What the hell?" He inspected his hand more closely. There didn't seem to be anything there. Thomas could feel himself starting to panic, so he forced himself to breathe and calm down. He tugged once more and his land slid from the railing with ease. Thomas, expecting more resistance tumbled backward, down the stairs. 

Thomas stared at his hand for a moment, before remembering why he'd been rushing in the first place. He shoved the door open with his elbow and sprinted down the short hallway into his room. Logan looked up in surprise as he entered, then continued reading his book. Thomas snatched at his books and tried to stuff them in his bag, before discovering that they too, refused to leave his hand. Thomas shook his hand back and forth but the books remained stuck. 

Thomas sighed and used a breathing exercise Virgil had taught him. It helped, slightly, to decrease the worry rising in his chest, but more importantly, it freed his fingers from the chemistry book. Thomas took a few more deep breaths and put the rest of his stuff in his bag as calmly as he could manage. Then he waved to Logan and ran to the elevator. The ride down seemed agonizingly slow. When he got to the ground floor, Thomas burst out of the building.

He was too preoccupied to notice that he was running much faster than normal, or that he wasn't out of breath when he arrived. He strode into his lab and took his seat next to his lab partner, Toby. Truth be told, Thomas had a bit of a crush on Toby. However, he resolved to focus on the lab and tune out any distractions. Everything was confusing and stressful, so Thomas focused on what he knew. Only one thing was certain: _That was no normal spider._


	3. The Questions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! This is actually really fun to write! I keep wanting to write Phineas and Ferb as the cartoon tho, so eh. Anyway, warnings for this chapter: mention of spiders, arachnophobia, Deceit speaks and talks about spiders, and he's a nice person. Um, yeah. I think that's it but I will make sure to include anything else you need mentioned next time. Thanks for reading!

Thomas yawned and walked out of the building. His lab had gone well, once he'd arrived. He just wanted to go back to his room and collapse on his bed. Despite this, Thomas walked in the opposite direction of his dorm room. He walked across the grounds, trying not to look like he was doing anything suspicious. He walked into Pliwith Hall and sped down the hall. He reached the room Roman had showed him earlier, but the door was shut, and Thomas could see people through the window.

He turned around and was almost out of the building when he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He turned around.

"Young man, what are you doing in this building?" 

Thomas froze and looked at the professor. "Um, I left a book in room 5. Do you know when the class ends?"

"I've never seen you in this building before, are you sure?"

"Well, it's actually my friend's book, uh, it's called _What If It's Us,_" Thomas continued, choosing a book he'd seen Roman reading a few days before. "Have you seen it? Is there a lost and found here?" 

"What's his name?"

"Roman Valeria."

The professor nodded severely. "Well, tell Roman he can collect his book himself in an hour when the class ends. Now, you have somewhere to be, I'm sure." 

Thomas nodded nervously and turned to leave. He hurried out of the building and back to his dorms. So much for looking at the spider. Thomas was so distracted that when he reached his floor, he ran smack into the black and purple figure in the hallway. 

"Sorry!" Thomas squeaked before he recognized Virgil. "Hey, dude! How ya been?"

"Um, good. Are you ok?"

Thomas shrugged. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm good."

Virgil looked at him. "No, you're not. I can literally feel the anxiety coming off you. C'mon." He led Thomas to the room he shared. Virgil pushed open the door to reveal the darkened room. Remy was sleeping, and Thomas had to stifle a laugh when he saw that Remy was still wearing his sunglasses. 

Virgil sat on the ground and pulled out a chess set, then raised an eyebrow. "Ready?"

Thomas sat too and grinned at him. "Let's go." 

The two played a few games of chess, all but one of which Thomas lost, but after a little while, Thomas did actually feel better. He thanked Virgil and went back to his room. He was able to do a little more studying, but his mind was still distracted by the spider. It had turned into an interesting thought experiment now that he'd stopped panicking. 

Logan was reading a book on his bed, so Thomas figured he could interrupt. 

"Hey, Logan?" 

"Yes?" 

"What do you think about Spiderman?" 

Logan paused. "I think he provides a service to the city that could not be provided by the police, by the nature of his position, but I don't pay much attention. Perhaps you should talk to Patton or Roman, they seem to like superheroes. They might know more to answer your question." Logan went back to his book and ignored him. Thomas nodded, which didn't convey any information to Logan, because he was already reading again, but it didn't disrupt him any further either, which Logan would've been grateful for had he thought about it. All of this occurred unnoticed by Thomas, who was still distracted, and by now walking toward the door. 

The door next to his contained the Cartoon Room. Emile had hung up some posters on his walls the first day, and in doing so drew Roman into a conversation like a moth to a harmless — at least for those within the conversation — flame. Since then the room had been decked out in children's cartoons, including the door. The wood paneling was almost completely covered in drawings, character analysis, and increasingly complex Steven Universe fan theories. Thomas pushed open the door to reveal stuffed animals and cartoon characters covering nearly every surface, and in the center watching a program was Roman, Patton, and Emile. 

Thomas grinned. "Hello, hello, hello! What are you watching?"

Patton bounded to his feet in an indescribable movement that launched him across the room, allowing him to hug his friend. Patton bounced a little and hugged Thomas once more. "Sorry, Thomathy!" Patton giggled. "I just had a really good day!"

Thomas laughed a little too mostly at the nickname. "You're cool Pat. You know I can't resist a hug from my favorite festal friend," Patton blushed at the compliment before pulling him into the pile of blankets and stuffies the students had constructed. "Anyway, I was just wondering what you guys know about Spiderman."

Patton gave an exaggerated shiver. "Well, you know how I feel about spiders; creepy-crawly death dealers."

"They're called spee-iders, also, hi Thomas." Emile kept his eyes fixed on the screen but Thomas wasn't bothered. The whole floor knew of his tendency to get sucked into cartoons, and it was honestly impressive for him to realize that you were in the room. 

Thomas shrugged. "Roman? Your thoughts?" 

"I like him. He's a lot more interesting than the cops and he does whatever he wants to kick butt and take names! I don't actually know too much about him though. You should go talk to Dallas, he knows a ton about hero stuff like that."

Thomas stood and shook the blankets off his shoulders. "Alright, see you guys later. Don't stay up all night watching that!" 

His next stop was Roman and D's room. It was decked out in Red, Yellow, and Gold, and was covered in art supplies. D was lying on the ground, facing upwards on his back. At least, Thomas assumed he was facing upwards. His head and part of his torso were currently located underneath his bed, but there seemed to be no problems in D's anatomy that might cause him to not face upwards. Thomas walked forward and pulled at his friend's leg. 

D hissed from somewhere underneath the bed, then pulled himself out of the darkness he'd been hiding in. "Two words. I hate retail." 

"That's three." 

"Would you like to speak to the manager?" D shot back. Thomas chuckled as D glowered.

"Anyway, I have some questions. First, Roman thinks your name is Dallas."

"Nope."

"Moving on. Also, how much do you know about Spiderman?"

D lit up. "Well, what do you want to know about him? Superpowers, origin story, villains, tv appearances, product lines?" 

"Um, origin story first."

"Well, according to interviews he's done, and the research I've conducted about spiders, he was bitten by a radioactive spider which gave him superpowers. The conclusion I've, and the part of the media that cares, has come to, is that the radioactivity of the spider permanently altered his DNA, giving him superhuman abilities. Or rather, super-spider. He took up the mantle of Spiderman because of some personal reasons that he's requested stay buried, and has been protecting the city every since. He's a college student now, apparently, but won't say which college or what he studies."

Thomas looked at him. "Did you, like, breathe at all during that?"

"Nope! What else?"

"Um, well, what powers does he have?"

D continued with Spiderman information, over the course of an hour revealing exactly how much he knew about superheroes, spiders, and Spiderman. Each statement he delivered made Thomas more and more sure that he, Thomas Sanders, aspiring chemical engineer, broke college student, now had the same powers as Spiderman. Finally, Thomas looked at the clock, which explained the hunger he'd started to feel within his gut. He was about to leave D's room, when another question occurred to him.

"Hey, do you know what happened to the spider after it bit him?" 

D pause for a moment. He'd been spinning around in a spinny chair for the better part of half an hour, but he slowly spun to a stop as he thought. "Pe-, er, _Spiderman_ never mentioned killing it, but the lifespan of a spider isn't long, especially when it's been exposed to radioactivity, _especially_ when there are people around who'd like to squash it. So I can't imagine it survived long after biting him."

Thomas took a deep breath before asking his next question, trying hard to hide his curiosity about the answer when he asked his next question. Thomas could feel a lot of fear, mixed in a slew of a number of other emotions, building up like a stew right past the corner of his eye, just waiting for him to look at it. "D, do you think there could ever be two Spidermans? Or, uh, Spidermen?"

D was spinning around again on the chair. "Oh, I doubt it. The current Spiderman has been doing it for about 5 years, so if anyone else got bit by that spider and got his powers, there's no trace of him so far. A closed book. It would be cool to think about though!"

Thomas nodded, ignoring the questions bubbling up from his gut and filling his chest, and smiled.

"You know, I like you D. When you get past all the silence and the lies, you're a really cool person."

D hissed at him again —"If you keep going like that, I'll think you like me." —but his tone was light and playful. 

Thomas chucked one of Roman's trinkets at his chair and walked out the door, back to his own room. He made a simple meal of ramen, with some vegetables at Logan's insistence, studied for a while before bed, then collapsed in the dark. His exhaustion took over, and Thomas fell asleep. 


End file.
